Nokia slammed for its content marketing

When it’s done wrong, it can completely blow up in your face and make you look like a guy at the beach wearing black socks with his sandals.

Nokia is that guy at that beach.

On Tuesday, the company published a glowing review of its new Lumia 620 smartphone on its blog Conversations by Nokia. The review is from “Adam,” who Nokia reportedly paid to write the review.

A number of bloggers were amused by the review, particularly that Nokia would paid for it and run the review on its blog.

The tone of the post by Adam—who is insanely enthusiastic about Nokia products— is pretty well summed up in this passage:

“From the start, it’s clear to see that the Nokia Lumia 620 is a fun, almost-youthful smartphone, thanks to the new color range.

“After popping in my Micro SIM card, a spare 8GB Micro SD card (supports up to 64GB) and the 1300mAh battery, I clipped on the lime shell – it just happened to match the jumper I was wearing that day – and powered it on.”

The Gawker-owned tech blog Gizmodo mocked Nokia’s efforts at content marketing, with scathing remarks on not only the company’s marketing, but also the phone.

“Don't buy a word that comes out of Adam Fraser's mouth,” Gizmodo’s Mario Aguilar wrote. “As for the phone? You probably shouldn't buy that either.”

HappyPlace.com, the blog for Someecards, was not amused by the review, either:

“The result is a social marketing disaster written by someone whose profile picture makes it look like he was genetically engineered in a vat of enthusiasm.”

For his part, Adam stood by his review. In a tweet to Gizmodo’s Aguilar, he said: “If You're asking me do I believe everything I wrote? Then yes, genuinely.”

Word of warning to content marketers everywhere: Take extreme caution before publishing a review of your product written by a staff writer. And avoid posting saccharine reviews such as the one from Nokia. It is so very easy to see through it, and it only serves to make you look out of touch and irrelevant.